Drying machine for textile materials



April 2l, 1925.

l' arl/1 ey.

2 Sheets-Sheet 2 In Ven/0r A a' g3 a4 w. G. R. BRAEMER ET AL DRYINGMACHINE FOR TEXTILE MATERIALS Filed oct. 23, 1924 April 21, 1925.

Patented Apr. 2l, 1925i.

UNITED `STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM G. R. BRAEMER, OF HADDONFIELD, NEW JERSEY, lANI) JOSEPH ROBERT,OF PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND, ASSIGNORS TO GENERAL FIRE EXTINGISHEBCOMPANY, A CORPORATION F NEW YORK.

DRYING MACHINE FOR TEXTILE MATERIALS.

Applicationled October 23, 1924. Serial No.` 745,293.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, WILLIAM G. R. BRAEMER and JosErH ROBERTS, bothcitizens of the United States, and residents of Haddonfield, county ofCamden, State of New Jersey, and Providence, county of Providence, Stateof Rhode Island, respectively, have invented an Improvement in DryingMachines for Textile Materials, of which the following is aspecification.

The object of our invention is to provide a simple and efficientconstruction of a drying machine especially adapted for drying warps.received from a slasher but' which may also be adapted for drying othergoods,

including woven fabrics in the open.

In general, our improved machine comprises a' drying chamber havingupper andy lower sets of rolls (one set being positively driven) aboutwhich'upper and lower rolls the warps or materials to be dried passalternately so as to move in a Vertical zigzag manner, and wherein aheating chamber is provided along one side of the drying chamber andVhaving communication therewith adjacent to the opposite side thereofand said drying chamber provided with heating coils and a plurality ofblowers at an elevation intermediate of the upper and lower rolls of thedrying chamber whereby the heated air is forcedtransversely between theoppositely moving vertical portions of teX- tile material and returnedto the' heating chamber from the upper and lower portions of the dryingchamber in such a manner that a minimum resistance is insured with amaximum circulation to provide capacity for rapid movementof the air ordrying medium.

Our. invention embodies other details of construction which, togetherwith the features above stated, are fully described hereinafter andpointed out in the claims.

.Referring to the drawings: Fig. 1 is a. plan view of a drying machineembodying our invention; Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the same; Fig. 3is a transverse vertical section of the same taken on line 3-3 of Fig.2; and Fig. 4 is a cross section of one of the guide rollers employed inthe machine.

l 2 represents a general outer casing usually formed of a metallic openwork structure with removable panels constituting wall and roofclosures. The compartment thus provided is longitudinally divided by apartition 3 secured to vertical posts 3a arranged at intervals andnearer to one side than the other, so as to provide a relatively'widedrying chamber 4 and a narrow longitudinal heating chamber 5. Thedivision wall 3 terminates at a distance from ythe roof of the chamber 2and is extended-in a horizontal bafe late 9 to provide av horizontalpassage 10. division wall 3 terminates at a short distance from thefloor and is extended in a horizontal baiiie plate 13 to 'provide ahoriimilarly, the lower part of the zontal passage 14. These passages 10and 14 preferably extend the full length of the drying chamber andcommunicate respectively With the upper part 11 and lower part 15 of theheating chamber 5, and at the other side with the upper and lower partsof the drying chamber. Along the middle part of the division wall 3 andintermediate of the posts thereof, we provide tubular openings betweenthe drying chamber 4 and the heating chamber 5 and. arranged in thesetubular openings We provide fans or blowers 7 which are driven by ashaft 8 and suitable belts and pulleys to be hereinafter described.

In the drying chamber 4 are Yarranged a series of upper rolls 17 locatedimmediately below the baffle plate 9 and journaled in bearings 21 'and22, the shaft of saidrollsextending beyond the bearings 21 and driven bysuitable gearing. The bearingsl 22 are supported upon a longitudinalangle iron 17l secured to the vertical posts 3a. Similarly the bearings21 are secured to longitudinal angle irons 17b secured to the generalframing at the outside of the casing. Arranged Within the drying chamber4, near its lower part and limmediately above the baliie plate 13, isaseries of guide rollers 18 whose shafts are journaled in vbearings 19and 20. The bearings 19 are secured to a longitudinal angle iron 18bsecured to the general framing at the outside of the casing, andthebearings 20 are carried by a longitudinal angle iron 18a secured to thevertical posts 32 The rollers 18 are idlers whereas the rollers 17 arepositively driven.

The means for driving the rollers 17 comprise'the followinginstrumentalities: 24 is a longitudinal shaft running lengthwise-of themachine and adjacent to the ends of the outwardly extending shafts ofthe rollers 17.

Shaft 24 is supported in bearings 26 onv i geared to the roller shaftsby bevel gearing passing The shaft 24 is driven from a shaft 28 arrangedtransversely at one end of the casing in bearings 31, and geared toshaft 24 by bevel gearing 27, as shown in Fig. 1. Shaft 28 is providedwith a belt wheel 29 and is driven by a belt 30 from a driven shaft 32of a variator or speed controlling means 33. The driving shaft 34 of thevariator is driven by any suitable power, sometimes by belts andsometimes by an electric motor. By way of illustration, belt wheels 35are shown as the source of power.

The blowers 6 are belted together by an endless belt passing aboutpulleys 39 onl the ends ofthe shafts 8 of the blowers, whereby theyrotate in unison and preferably at the same speeds. These blowers aredriven by means of a belt 37 passing about a pulley 38 on one of theblower shafts and about a pulley 86 on the driving shaft 34 of thevariator. In this manner, any desired speed may be given to the blowersto insure a proper circulation of the air and at the same time the speedof rotation of the driving rolls 17 may be adjusted to suit therequirements of the textile material being treated. In this manner, thespeed of travel of the materials through the drying chamber and incontact with the circulating drying medium may be adjusted or controlledto suit the requirements. A suitable variator or speed control means isset out in Letters Patent No. 1.377,593, and reference is made theretoas showing an example of a suitable variator.

Referring again to the heating chamber 5, the same is provi-ded with twosets of longitudinally arranged heating coils respectively above andbelow the level of the blowers, the heating coils 41 being interposedbetween -the middle space'of the heating chamber and the upper space 11thereof which is in communication with the passage 10 above the batheplate 9. The lower coils 42 are arranged between the middle of theheating chamber and the lower. part 15 thereof which is in communicationwith the passage 14 below the bafiie plate 13. By this arrangement, theair or drying medium is circulate-d by the blowers as, indicated by thearrows, that is to say, the air is forced horizontally between thetextile material through the drying chamber and returns through thepassages 10 and 14 to the heating chamber, and thence through theheating coils where it is reheated prior to being delivered to theblower for recirculation. The lower art 15 of the heating chamber isprovide( with an inlet 44 having a control damper 45 for permitting in-How of fresh dry air which mingles with the circulating air in place ofmoist air F which is removed) and said mixed air passing in an upwarddirection tothe blowers, whereby the proper quantity of air may bemaintained in circulation. Similarly, the upper part 11 of the dryingchamber above the inlet 44 is provided with an inlet 46 having a controlvalve 4'? by which additional air may be introduced into the circulationwhich passes through the passage 10 and in a downward direction to theblowers. These inlets 44 and,.46 are preferably arranged at thedischarge end ofthe drying chamber. At the opposite or inlet end of thedrying chamber 1s provided an outlet 48 having a damper 49 which permitsescape of moist air and said outlet may be arranged at the. upper partand open from the space 11 of the heating chamber, if so desired.

The moist warps treated by the slasher 52 enter the drying chamberthrough an entrance aperture 51 and thence pass about a guide roller 50,thence upwardly about one of the drive rolls 17, thence downwardly aboutone of the idler rolls 18,'thence upwardly to the next driving roll 17and so on through the drying chamber, and finally guided about a guideroller 53 and through the discharge aperture 54, all of which will beunderstood by reference to Figs. 2 and .In this manner, the warps o"rtextile materials are caused to pass in a substantially verticaldirection while being conveyed through the drying chamber. It will alsobe seen that the position of the upper rolls 17 in relation to theposition of the lower rolls 18 is such that they are out of verticalalinement'so that the yarns or textile materials in passing about themtake on a sinuous or zigzag form, the positively moving vertical partsthereof forming pockets, as it were, between them which open upwardlyand downwardly alternately forA the more ready circulation of the dryingmedium and, at the same time, to offer as little resistance as possibleto the free How of the air so that it may be moved with as high velocityas possible and thereby increasing the efficiency of the dryingoperation. The arrangement of the escape outlet 48is such that theinflowing dry air through the in lets 44 and 46 causes the air withinthe drying chamber to gradually move to the inlet end and thereby crowdout the most moist air from the outlet 48, and in this manner maintain aproper hygrometric condition of the drying medium. In this way, the airis given a transverse circulation by theblowers and at the same time abackward movement with respect to the advance of the warps or textilematerials so that the latter enterl where the air is most vmoist and.leave where it is most dry. y

The roller 50` may be iuted, as indicated in Fig. 4, so as to resent aplurality of lines of contact about 1ts circumference, and the rollers`17 and 18 may be of cylindricalform or fluted or corrugated to agreater or less extent corresponding to Fig. f1, if so desired, but wedo not confine ourselves in'this A respect.

, Itwill now be apparent that we have devised a novel and usefulconstruction which embodies the features of advantage enumerated asdesirable, and while we have inthe present instance shown and describedthe/ preferred embodiment thereof which 4has been found in practice togive satisfactory and reliable results, it is to be understood that wedo not` restrict ourselves to the details, as the same are susceptible'of moditication in various particulars without departing from thespirit or scope of the 1nvention.

i rollers arranged transverselyr along the length of the drying chamberat its upper portion, at plurality of parallel rollers arranged alongthe lengthof the drying chamber near its lower portion and about'whichupper and lower rollers the textile material is alternately guided so asto tra-vel largely in a vertical direction, a plurality of blowersarranged in the wall between the drying and heating chambers for causinga circulation of air transversely to the general direction of travel ofthe textile material through the drying chamber, and means in theheating and recirculating chamber for heating the air during itscirculation. s

2. The invention according to claim 1, wherein further, thecommunication between the heating chamber and the upper and lower'portions of the drying chamber are'formed by transverse baille platesextending respectively above and below the two sets of rollers andterminating near the distant side of the drying chamber, whereby the airtransversely traversing the drying chamber is required to movecompletely across it in its circulation with respect to the heatingchamber.

3. The invention according to claim 1, wherein further, the means forheating the air comprises upper and lower horizontally arranged heatersand wherein said heaters are respectively positioned between the level I.of the blowers and the upper andJlower levels of communication betweenthe dryingv chamber and the heating chainber.-

4, The invention accordingto `claim 1, wherein further, the casing isprovided at its end most distant from the inlet to the drying chamberwith a damper controlled inlet forl outside air whereby it maybe sup--plied to the recirculrating air within the drying and hea-tingchambers.

5. Themi'nvention according to claim 1, wherein further, the casing isprovided at its end most distant from the 'inlet tothe .drying chamber'with' a damper controlled inlet for outsidejair whereby it may besupplied to the recirculating air-within the drying` and heatingchambers, and a damper controlled outlet for ,moist air arranged at theend of the casing adjacent to the inlet for the moist textile materialto be dried, whereby the transverse currents of air put in motion by theblowers are caused to gradually travel toward the inlet end of thedrying chamber and out by the damper controlled outlet;

6. The invention according to claim 1, wherein further, there isprovided an outlet for moist air at the end of the casing adjacent tothe inlet for the moist textile ma- -terialto be dried, and two dampercontrolled inlets for outside air arranged at the end. of ,the casingmost distant from the inlet for the textile material and said air inletsrespectively arranged at the up er` and lower portions of the heatingcham er whereby it is heated with the recirculating air before passingto the blowers.

7. The invention according to claim 1, wherein further, there isprovidedpower means for driving the blowers and for operating the driven rollsand variable speed control means for changing the relative speeds of theblowers and rolls.

8. .The invention according to claim 1, wherein further, there isprovided power means for driving the blowers at a uniform speed and alsofor operating the driven rolls and variable speed control means forvarying the speed of the rolls whereby the tex- -versely along thelength of the drying chamber at its upper portion, a plurality ofparallel rollers arranged along the -length of the drying chamber nearits lower portion tile material may be fed through the air f and aboutwhich u per and lower rollers the textile material 1s alternately guidedso as to travel largely in a Vertical direction, a blower arranged inthe wall opening between the dryin and lieatin chambers for causing acircu ation of air transversely to the general direction of travel ofthe textile'material through the dr ing chamber, and means in theheating an recirculating chamber for heating the air during itscirculation.

10. The invention according to claim 9, wherein the drying chamber isprovided with balie plates for governing the direction of the aircurrents when circulating in contact with the textile material beingtreated. v

' 11. The invention according to claim 9, wherein means are provided forpermitting the escape of moist air from the upper part LWILLIAM G. R.BRAEMER.

JosEPH ROBERTS.

